Wednesday, August 31, 2016

September will witness television history when the CBS legal drama Doubt debuts with Laverne Cox playing the first main cast transgender character for a scripted network TV series. The web series Her Story featuring my homegirls Angelica Ross and Jen Richards received an Emmy nomination.

Another reality show series featuring a trans cast in the Whoopi Goldberg produced Strut will debut September 20, and we are waiting to see if I Am Jazz gets renewed for a third season.

Tangerine, a move featuring two trans actresses in Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez garnered attention for the Oscar campaign that was run for its two stars.

The indie movie Boy Meets Girlthat's on Netflix right now, featured a trans feminine character named Ricky that surprise, surprise was played by trans actress Michelle Hendley, also got some well deserved buzz and attention

You would think that with all the interest in trans people's lives, that Hollywood would be planning to whet that appetite with movies that have transgender characters being played by trans actors.

But nope, hasn't worked out that way.

And now after hearing Matt Bomer is going to be the latest white cisgender male to play a transwoman on the silver screen in an attempt to parlay that into an Academy Award nomination a la Jared Leto and Eddie Redmayne, it's time for Hollywood to have several sections of seats at the Rose Bowl about that transphobic practice.

That's how fed up the trans feminine community is about this irritating pattern of seeing white cisgender actors repeatedly get to play trans characters on the silver screen to mine and our community's displeasure, and especially the displeasure of the trans actresses trying to make a living in Hollywood.

Jen Richards calls out the problems with why it's a big deal with cis men playing trans women and I agree with many of the points she made in her Twitter chain that is featured in the Mic post I linked to.

As for cis women playing trans characters, since I was asked about it at Chautauqua, I'll repeat what I said there. Personally I don't like it simply because I want my trans sisters to have first cracks at those roles, and there is no equity yet in Hollywood in terms of trans actresses getting fair shots to play cis feminine characters.

But if it's done by the cis actress in question with respect for our lives, I can deal with it. If I'm forced to choose, I prefer a cis woman playing a trans woman instead of the reprehensible transphobic pattern going on right now.

One example of a cis woman who is respectfully playing a trans woman and nailing it is Karla Mosley, who plays model Maya Avant Forrester on the CBS soap The Bold and the Beautiful.

I've been impressed by how Mosley and the B& B writers have handled the nuances of Maya's character living as a trans woman, and the added bonus of that is it is the first time we have seen it play out in a Black family on network television

As for the tired trope of 'transwomen are men' trope that's a relic of disco-era second wave feminism, past time to give that crap a rest. especially in Hollywood. Some of you Hollywood peeps need to show up at a trans pageant or a trans convention. When you do so, you'll note that some of my trans feminine sisters will give Miss Universe a run for her money in the beauty department.

But even having a cis woman playing a trans woman has bumped into at times the entrenched Hollywood transphobia about trans women.

Several years ago Kerry Washington played a trans woman in the 2009 movie Life Is Hot In Cracktown, and she said in an interview in the runup to its release at the time she didn't get the part at first because the director thought she was 'too beautiful to play a transwoman'.

Even some of the cis women actresses playing trans women have had some interesting reactions and revelations about what we deal with while walking in our trans feminine pumps for their roles.

Chloe Sevigny admitted in an interview that when she played Mia in the British series Hit and Miss, because of the prosthetic penis she had to wear for the role, she not only cried every day when she had to put it on, she felt unattractive and questioned her desirability when she was in character.

Kerry Washington said this in an interview about her Marybeth character.

"The biggest thing I learned is that these are individuals who are born as women. They are women but their biology/anatomy has betrayed them in some way and that’s the fundamental thing to understand. I am not playing a man who wants to be a woman, I am playing a woman who has been born with a physical inconsistency so my body doesn’t reflect my emotional truth. That’s key to understanding who this person is."

Too bad the rest of Hollywood doesn't get the fundamental truth about trans women that Kerry Washington so easily grasped.

That being said, I still have a major problem with cisgender males playing trans women in Hollywood when there's a long list of trans women like Alexandra Billings, Trace Lysette. Jamie Clayton, Mya Taylor and countless others ready, willing and able to do the job if given the opportunity to play these roles.

But the key reason I have a problem with it is because as Jen and other trans women across our community have stated, it reinforces the stereotype that 'transwomen are men', and that has negative life or death consequences for us.

The 'that's a man' stereotype repeatedly spat at trans women of all ethnic backgrounds is also negatively affecting the human rights of trans people and our allies around the country as HB2 and the repeal of HERO were Exhibits A and B of.

And with the Republican Party and conservative movement revving up bathroom fears of trans people in order to attack human rights laws and demonize trans people for their own political gain, we trans women of color are paying in blood for that and the desire of Hollywood cisgender men to get an Oscar.

So it's why I have had it up to here with lazy Hollywood directors and casting directors repeatedly putting cis men in drag to play trans women.

While we're counting down to the sixth annual Black Trans Advocacy Conference in Dallas next April, BTAC executive director Carter Brown is hitting the road for a series of BTAC regional summit events that will take place in several cities around the country.

The first one was in Topeka, Kansas August 26-27, with upcoming ones in New York on September 10, Atlanta September 24-25 at the Phillip Rush Center, and Baltimore October 7-9 at a location TBD.

As more are scheduled will pass that information along to you.

The New York event will start at 12 PM, and if you're interested, head on over to 115 W 113th St to check it out.

The goal of the BTAC summits is a multi faceted one.. In addition to getting the opportunity to meet Carter and other local BTAC leaders, it's spreading the word about the Dallas based national conference that is unique in trans conference world of being focused on Black trans people.

While this conference is focused on Black trans people, we encourage trans people of all ethnic backgrounds to come along with allies and significant others.

The BTAC regional summits summits are also seeking people interested in starting Black Transmen, Inc (BTMI) and Black Transwomen Inc (BTWI) local chapters, joining existing local chapters, participants and regional sponsors for the Black Trans International Pageantry System (BTIPS) pageants, people interested in stepping up to become leaders in BTMI/BTWI, and people wishing to help plan the 2017 BTAC national conference.

At a time in which right wing politicians are attacking the trans community and bald face lying to deny our existence combined with faux faith based resistance to our trans lives, events like BTAC are critical to building self esteem, and meeting and bonding with other trans people from around the world. We were blessed at this year's event to have trans people from Brazil and Jamaica attend this year, and that's one pattern I hope continues for BTAC

Events like these regional summits help them get the word out about the conference and hopefully get people to come and check it out.

The 2017 BTAC Conference that will take place in Dallas April 24-30 is now in its 6th year, and is setting a goal of breaking its attendance record set earlier this year of 150 participants.

So hope that you can attend one of the regional summits when it comes you way, and even better, if you can attend the BTAC national conference that is now just eight months away from happening.

Our right wing oppressors, oops opponents continue their efforts to be on the wrong side of human rights history. But as they continue to try to justify discriminating against and dehumanizing transgender people for their own nefarious political gain, we continue to fight them tooth and nail.

Yesterday the Human Rights Campaign released this video that has a few peeps in it I know in their #ThisIsTransgender campaign along with my reprehensible Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick and the hopefully soon to be one term governor of North Carolina Pat McCrory.

4. Jill Stein is even less qualified for the presidency than Donald Trump is.

5. She would the the first ever female POTUS and it's past time we had a woman leader in the Oval Office.

6. She has served as a two term senator for New York and Secretary of State under President Obama.

7. As POTUS she would pick the next four Supreme Court justices and federal judges for the next four years

8. I'm sick of the misogyny, 1990's era conservalies and unjustified hatred being aimed at her.

9. Hillary Clinton while working for Marian Wright Edelman went undercover in Alabama to get the info Edelman needed to get the Nixon administration to yank the tax exemptions from the discriminatory private segregation academy schools set up in Southern states to duck Brown v Board.

10. This 2016 election will determine the course of this nation and the shape of the federal judiciary and SCOTUS for the next 30-40 years.

11. I want her to succeed the first Black POTUS.

12. Gary Johnson is not an option either. He's basically a Republican ashamed to claim the label, and not an option for me in this critical election cycle.

13. She has since 1992 done battle with the right wingers and won, including last year when the GOP controlled House had her sit through 11 hours of fake Benghazi scandal testimony and made them look stupid in the process. That's a quality I want to see in a Democratic POTUS.

14. When she worked on the McGovern campaign in 1972 to register Black and Latinx voters, her and Bill's organizing was done in South Texas.

15. She understands the issues impacting my community.

16. She would have the respect of the international community from the nanosecond she took the oath of office as president.

17. I'm sick of the Hillary hatred from the Green Tea Party far left.

18. She has repeatedly declared on the world state that LGBT rights are human rights

19. She fought to get universal single payer healthcare passed in 1993.

20. #ImWithHer, I'm/a Texan for Hillary and have been since February 16.

Monday, August 29, 2016

If you're planning on voting in our upcoming presidential election, better get busy and make sure you're registered to do so.

Some of the deadline dates are coming up fast. Here's the list of voter registration deadlines for US states and territories. This is the last possible day you can register in these states and territories.

In North Dakota you aren't required to register. but you must be a US citizen, 18 years old by Election Day. live at your address by October 9, not be in jail or prison for a felony conviction, not be considered mentally incompetent by a court and have acceptable forms of ID to do so in person or by mail.

September

The Northern Marianas is the first one on the list with a September 9 voter registration deadline day, and Puerto Rico follows 10 days later with a September 19 registration deadline day.

October

October 8 in Mississippi, South Carolina and the US Virgin Islands,

October 9 in Alaska, Rhode Island

October 10 in American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas and Hawaii

October 11 is deadline day for eleven states that includes Texas. For those of you live in the Lone Star State, you need to make that registration happen and have that blue voter registration card by this date.

The other ten states in which you need to handle your electoral registration business by this date are Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, Ohio and Pennsylvania are 2016 swing states, and so if you wish to determine who the next POTUS will be, get busy getting registered.

October 12 in Missouri

October 14 in New York, North Carolina and Oklahoma.

So peeps in the Tarheel State, if you want to kick Pat My Crotch out of the governor's mansion along with the unjust GOP controlled NC legislature, have until this date to register for the election.

October 14 in Delaware

October 17 in Virginia.

October 18 in Kansas, Minnesota Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and West Virginia

October 19 in Massachusetts

October 24 in Alabama, California and South Dakota

October 28 in Guam, Nebraska

October 31 in Washington So if you peeps living there don't want the horrifying prospect of a President Donald Tump, you must be registered in your state by this date.

November

November 1 is the deadline for Utah The Beehive State is one of the surprise states in play in Election 2016.

November 2 in Vermont

November 3 in Maryland

November 8 is Election Day, and these states and territories have same day registration. Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Saturday was a busy one for me as I attended two events that were fortunately happening only a mile apart.

I was asked by Rhys Caraway to present an award that went to Phoebe Van Cleefe at the #BlackQueerMagic Empowerment Brunch that was held in the shadow of downtown Houston at St, John's UNC.and sponsored by Young Black Voices.

That even started at 12:30 PM, and after we got our grub on, the awards presentation started with much of activist Houston in the room for this event..

Awards were also presented to Jason Black, Mike Webb, Aurora Gray and Fran Watson in addition to two Bayard Rustin Scholarships that was emceed by Harrison Gray.

What many people don't realize is that Houston was one of the early Ground Zero's for the HIV epidemic that broke out in 1981 with the nastier HTLV-1 virus

Indigent terminally ill AIDS patients were finding themselves once they were discharged from the various Houston hospitals with no place to go. Omega House was founded by then 76 year old retired Montessori teacher Eleanor Munger in 1986 to fill that critical care gap and give indigent people suffering with AIDS die with dignity.

With $10,000 in seed money from Christ Church Cathedral, Munger opened the four bed all volunteer run facility with the mission to compassionately care for terminally ill AIDS patients in their final stages that could no longer be cared for by the traditional medical establishment.

It was the first residential hospice in Texas, and it recently merged with Houston Area Community Services. Bering Omega House and celebrated its 30th year of existence with a short program in HSPVA's Denny Theater in which longtime workers there recalled the early days of its existence.

Munger passed away in 2004 at age 92, but the residential hospice she founded is still very much a part of the community. Some of the peeps who were at the Empowerment Brunch with us also took time like Dee Dee and I did to spend a few moment at that ceremony that began at 4 PM, and also included a tour of the facility.

It was a long day, but it's always good to see my Houston community peeps.and spend some quality time with them, especially since I've piled up a lot of frequent flier miles this year.

And I couldn't think of a better way to spend my day than to celebrate the achievements of some of our young activists and the 30th anniversary of a critical institution in our community.

Had more good news for transkind happen on Friday when we got an unexpected HB2 ruling in North Carolina that went our way.

US District Judge Thomas Schroeder (GW Bush appointee) issued a surprising 83 page ruling in our favor and in favor of the three trans plaintiffs that filed a lawsuit challenging Hate Bill 2's anti-trans provisions as violations of Title IX.

Judge Schroeder granted a temporary injunction against the University of North Carolina's attempt to enforce HB 2 against trans Tarheel students and a trans UNC employee that he unfortunately said only applies to the three plaintiffs in the case.

The Carcano v McCrory case goes to trial in November, and in what has to be additional bad news for the North Carolina GOP transphobes, Judge Schroeder stated he expects that the plaintiffs will succeed in proving their claim that HB 2 is a violation of the Title IX law that bars sex discrimination in schools.

"Today is a great day for me and hopefully this is the start to chipping away at the injustice of HB 2 that is harming thousands of other transgender people who call North Carolina home," said Joaquin Carcano, the lead plaintiffs in this case in a statement released by the ACLU.

"Today, the tightness I have felt in my chest every day since HB 2 passed has eased. But the fight is not over: we will not rest until this discriminatory law is defeated," Carcano added.

But evil never sleeps, and the right-wing hatemongers and GOP trans oppressors who passed Hate Bill 2 are determined to continue the fight to oppress trans people as their latest brief they filed in the Carcano case suggests.

However, Judge Schroeder is still reserving judgment on the other parts of their claim that he will make a final ruling on in November.

And FYI, in the 4th Circuit, despite the unjust ruling that came out of Wichita Falls last week by another GW Bush appointee, the positive ruling made in April in the Grimm v Gloucester County case at the 4th Circuit appeals level is the controlling precedent.

Defendants argue that separating facility users by biological sex serves prophylactically to avoid the opportunity for sexual predators to prey on persons in vulnerable places. However, the individual transgender Plaintiffs have used facilities corresponding with their gender identity for over a year without posing a safety threat to anyone … Moreover, on the current record, there is no evidence that transgender individuals overall are any more likely to engage in predatory behaviors than other segments of the population. In light of this, there is little reason to believe that allowing the individual transgender Plaintiffs to use partitioned, multiple occupancy bathrooms corresponding with their gender identities, as well as UNC to seek to accommodate use of similar showers and changing facilities, will pose any threat to public safety, which will continue to be protected by the sustained validity of peeping, indecent exposure, and trespass laws. And although Defendants argue that a preliminary injunction will thwart enforcement of such safety laws by allowing non-transgender predators to exploit the opportunity to cross-dress and prey on others ...,the unrefuted evidence in the current record suggests that jurisdictions that have adopted accommodating bathroom access policies have not observed subsequent increases in crime …

We'll see if this is exactly what happens in a few months, but if it does, it's music to my ears and music to the ears of the ACLU, ACLU-NC, Lambda Legal, Equality North Carolina and the Department of Justice, who has also filed their own lawsuit seeking to strike down HB2.

After a surprising exit in the Rio Olympic singles and doubles tournament, Serena Williams enters New York and this edition of the 2016 US Open with an eye toward winning the title that she shockingly lost last year in the semifinals just shy of a calendar year Grand Slam.

It's the last tennis Grand Slam tourney of the year, and she's still not happy about the one that got away. So look out all you peeps playing against her starting today and over the next two weeks,

Serena's still ranked number one in the world, is the number one seed in this edition of the US Open and number one in our hearts. She and Venus step on the Flushing Meadows grounds of a USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center that has undergone some major changes,

This will be the first open in which Arthur Ashe Stadium as part of the $550 million dollar renovation to the USTA National Tennis Center will have a retractable roof to cover the main stadium court like the Aussie Open and Wimbledon have had for years over their main Grand Slam tournament venues. Louis Armstrong Stadium will also have a roof enclosing it once it is reconstructed and its current 10,200 seating capacity is increased to 15,000 by the 2018 Open.

Unlike the Australian Open and Wimbledon, the US Open officials plans are to only close the Ashe Stadium roof for rain, not extreme heat. We'll see how long that lasts.

A brand new 8000 seat Grandstand Court will also make its debut at this tournament, and for those of you in the New York area planning on attending it this year, you'll be happy to know that the National Tennis Center grounds were also redesigned to improve foot traffic,

But back to talking about the US Open which will run until September 11. Serena will start her pursuit of her record seventh US Open title title and 23rd major title with a tough opening round match versus Russia's Ekaterina Makarova.

Should she win that one, it's on to the second round to face the winner of the Antonia Lottner- Vania King match

Venus was the Williams sister that surprisingly took home a medal from Rio, a silver that she won in the mixed doubles tournament with Rajeev Ram. She's seeded sixth in this edition of the US Open and unfortunately is in the same half of the draw as Little Sis.

She will open up first round play in a match with Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine, and would face the winner of the Julia Gorges-Yanina Wickmayer match in the second round.

And in case you're wondering if Venus and Serena were entered in the US Open doubles, nope they aren't.

Best of luck to my fave tennis playing siblings in this last tennis Grand Slam of 2016.

Friday, August 26, 2016

It's been a while since I wrote a TransGriot Perv Watch post, and this one is too delicious and chock full of schadenfreude to not talk about another #stillnottrans anti-trans hypocrite.

If you were keeping your eye on what happened earlier this year in Jacksonville, FL when they tried literally a month after HERO went down in right wing instigated flames and failed to pass an HRO amendment that added sexual orientation and gender identity that , you would have heard me mention the name of Kenneth Adkins.

Adkins also declared in the wake of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando that the 'homosexuals got what they deserved'.

Thanks to a tip from one of my longtime TransGriot readers in Brenda Lunger, I was pointed to this story on the 'Joe My God' blog that announced the arrest of Adkins this morning by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).

The 56 year old pastor is cooling his heels in the Glynn County Jail after turning himself at 9 AM EDT this morning. He is accused of one count of aggravated child molestation and another count of
child molestation that allegedly occurred in 2010 in a vehicle, his church, and the victim's home.

The investigation according to a GBI press release and reporting from the Florida Times-Union is ongoing.

It's been almost a week since the Olympic flame was extinguished at the Maracana Stadium on Sunday to close out the Rio Olympic Games and literally pass the hosting torch to Tokyo for 2020.

After 19 days of competition in which we won so much that Donald Trump couldn't even muster a single tweet congratulating our diverse USA Olympic team for winning 121 medals to lead all nations, I was suffering from an acute case of Olympic withdrawal on Monday and Tuesday.

It started with that twinge of sadness I felt when I watched the moving images of the Olympic flame be extinguished as Brazilian singer Marlene de Castro sang a hauntingly beautiful song with misting water flowing in the background as the wind powered sculpture designed by Anthony Howe that made for a cool effect in contrast with the Olympic cauldron stopped moving at the same moment the flame went out.

The next morning, the cold reality the Games were over hit me as I tuned on the TV, and instead of eagerly watching the athletes of the world competing for gold, silver and bronze medals, I was back to the real world of a contentious US presidential election and the news rudely reminding me that my community's human rights were under a legal attack unfortunately led by my indicted Texas GOP AG Ken Paxton.

Well, the start of the 2020 Tokyo Games is scheduled for July 24, 2020. That's only 1426 days from now as I write this post.

Today is also Friday, and that means it's time to call out the fool, fools or groups of fools who have uttered Olympic sized baldfaced lies, made WTF statements, and exhibited brazen hypocrisy.

Yep, it's time for this week's version of the TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards

Honorable mention number one is a group award for every conservative pundit this week trying to cosign Donald Trump's ridiculous claim that Hillary Clinton is a bigot.

Thanks to all the Black and Latinx media pundits that had no problem calling out the idiocy like Angela Rye and Charles Blow.

I have a lifetime of experience spotting bigots along with every non-white American, and we can pretty much unanimously say that's it's hypocritical and WTF worthy for Donald Trump's bigoted and racist behind to be accusing someone else who has the long positive civil rights track record Clinton has of bigotry

Honorable mention number two is Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), who left a Democratic state lawmaker a derogatory unhinged recorded message under the assumption that state Rep Drew Gattine (D) had called him a racist.

Hey, if he did, he's only telling the truth about you, so why are you getting so pissed off about it?

Honorable mention number three is another example of sterling GOP leadership in North Carolina lieutenant governor Dan Forest, who offered his loud and wrong opinion on our trans lives.

Honorable mention number four we go across The Pond to Nice, France, where the Nice po-po's are gleefully oppressing Muslim women by enforcing their burkini ban that has now gone to the French courts to challenge its .

Honorable mention number five is Sigourney Coyle, who exhibited an acute case of faith -based transphobia when she claimed that she would fail gym class if she was 'forced' to dress out in front of a trans feminine student

Yeah right. That trans feminine student is more concerned about being treated with dignity and respect than worrying about what you look like in your underwear when you change into your gyn clothes.

And you're proving the old political science joke about Pennsylvania to be true in your case. It's Pittsburgh in the west, Philadelphia in the east, and Alabama in the middle.

Honorable mention number six is Atlanta based megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar, who is in the news for his latest effort in faith based prosperity gospel coonery by claiming 'God told me to endorse Donald Trump '

And y'all wanna know why I can't stand these sellout 'minsters' like Dollar that are nothing more than Rev, Ike on steroids.

Honorable mention number seven goes to GOP federal Judge Reed O'Connor for oppressing trans people across the USA just before the first day of school started with his unjust injunction. .

Elections matter trans community and allies, and especially presidential elections.

The POTUS picks not only the SCOTUS, but the federal judge you'll be depending on to rule in your favor in any federal discrimination cases you file.

This trans oppressor not only filed suit to fight the DOE/DOJ Dear Colleague letter that simply states you cannot discriminate against trans students and they are covered under Title IX,, the same day he accepted a dinner invitation from Amber Briggle and her transgender child, he filed another federal lawsuit to deny transgender people medical coverage. .

As I've said repeatedly, love my home state of Texas, hate the GOP conservative azzholes and trans oppressors who run it

In case you peeps were wondering what's happening with Bryanna Jenkins, my amazing sis who is starting her 1L year at DePaul University Law School, she's moved from Baltimore to Chicago, is getting acclimated to the Windy City, and is immersing herself in her law school studies.

Major props to you Bryanna as your unapologetic Black trans self embarks upon furthering your education and making your dream of becoming an attorney come true.

At a time when it seems as though anti-trans lawsuits are being filed by transphobic Republican red state attorney generals at a breakneck pace, your entrance into law school is coming at a critical juncture in our community's history.

And it doesn't hurt that you are entering law school well versed in the issues that impact Black trans World.

As you're probably aware from our people's distinguished history, it was our legal warriors like Charles Houston and a fellow Baltimorean who later served on the Supreme Court in Justice Thurgood Marshall that helped dismantle Jim Crow segregation and advance the human rights of our African-American community in the federal court system.

I not only applaud you for doing so, I'm bursting at the seams proud of you for doing so.

We have needed more trans women of color attorneys to join the outstanding cadre of trans attorneys we a;ready have doing amazing things, and so glad you have started the journey to join their distinguished ranks.

Tomorrow afternoon the Young Black Voices group will present their Empowerment Brunch that serves to honor Houston area Black LGBTQ community leaders that are empowering at the intersections of their identities.

They are also honoring the 2016 Bayard Rustin Scholars during this complimentary brunch that is being held at St. John's United Methodist Church.

I've been asked to present an award to one of the honorees, and I'm looking forward to seeing this person again and meeting all of the 2016 award winners.

If you wish to attend, St John's UMC is located at 2019 Crawford St in the heart of downtown Houston, and will start at 12:30 PM

Hillary Clinton put Donald Trump on blast during a speech in Reno, Nevada on race relations that rebutted Trump's ludicrous charge that Clinton was a bigot.

Stop projecting, Donald.

Clinton didn't call him a bigot, but made it clear without uttering his name that she was talking about the Republican nominee. She came armed in this Reno speech with numerous examples of Trump's bigotry during this campaign and in his personal life.

"There's always been a paranoid fringe in our politics, a lot of it arising from racial resentment. But it's never had the nominee of the major party stoking it. encouraging it, and giving it a national megaphone until now." Clinton said in her speech.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Faced with polls showing he is losing white female voters he needs to even have a prayer of competing against Sec. Hillary Clinton, the new Trump campaign team rolled out a 'Black outreach' that is as cynical, racist and disrespectful to us as the Attwater 'Southern Strategy' was.

Trump has for the last few days been reciting a 'What do you have to lose?' talking point in pitching his train wreck of a campaign to Black voters from white suburbia '

What do we have to lose in Black America? The more accurate question is what will we gain by giving our precious votes to Donald Trump?

Absolutely nothing.

That pitch was DOA even if white conservative pundits and Republican operatives love it. The problem is we peeped Trump's racist game a long time ago, and you conservafools keep thinking that Black people are as gullible and stupid as your base is.

News flash, we aren't. We know this tone deaf to us so-called outreach is only geared toward getting white folks who want to vote for Trump but are hesitant to do so not only because of the racist anti- Black, Latinx and Muslim rhetoric coming out of his mouth on the campaign trail, but because of the unrepentant Confederate flag waving racists, bitter bigots and white supremacists who have embraced his campaign and are buying the 'Make America Great Again' snake oil he's selling.

As Bernie Sanders found out a few months ago, we Black voters have long memories, and will punish your azz at the polls for any sign of disrespect, no matter how long ago it was.

We Black Americans have a long list of grievances to punish Trump for, starting with the 1973 DOJ lawsuit for violations of the Fair Housing Act aimed at our people.

There was also Trump's racist rhetoric and actions during the 1989 Central Park Five case that resulted in these Black kids being jailed despite all the evidence pointing to them being innocent and not being exonerated until the actual perpetrator of the rape.

Black women haven't forgotten how Trump opened his mouth in 1992 to slime Desiree Washington in Mike Tyson's defense during the Indiana rape case in which he was eventually convicted.

Then there's Trump's more recent racist crime in our eyes of being the Birther In Chief leading the ludicrous attacks on President Obama's birth certificate.

And don't even get me started about what Black LGBTQ people think of Trump. That's another post.

So do you think we Black Americans want this man who became the Republican nominee because of white resentment politics on steroids to succeed the first African-American US president he spent several years demonizing?

Hell No! Black America is gearing up to make sure that on November 8 we do our part to ensure we hear the words 'President -elect Hillary Clinton' on that date.

Hofheinz Pavilion has been the on campus home for the University of Houston Cougar basketball team since it opened in 1970. While growing up here I got to attend several concerts held there like the Jackson 5 and Prince, along with a few Houston Rockets games after they moved here from San Diego in 1971. It was the Rockets home arena for four seasons until The Summit was completed in 1975.

When Hofheinz Pavilion opened it had a seating bowl that could hold 10,000 fans, but after 1998 renovations that added luxury boxes to the top of the seating bowl along with an alcove honoring NBA Hall of Famer and Cougar alum Elvin Hayes, the seating capacity after the removal of seats to facilitate construction of the boxes was reduced to 8,479.

The building was named for Irene 'Dene' and Judge Roy Hofheinz (yep, the same Judge Hofheinz that got the Astrodome built) and a prominent politician and philanthropist in Houston, after they donated $1.5 million to help complete construction of it

With an eye on positioning UH to be included into a Power Five conference in the next round of Power Five conference expansion or their ultimate goal (along with Cougar alums) of joining the Big XII, money has been invested in upgrading the athletic facilities in recent years.

The opening of TDECU Stadium in 2014 was part of that, and the football stadium is designed so that an upper deck can be added to increase its capacity when necessary.

With that football stadium issue being resolved along with the opening of the METRORail Purple Line that passes the stadium and the western and southern half of the campus, in 2010 a $60 million renovation to the aging Hofheinz Pavilion was announced complete with a naming rights deal to a then anonymous donor.

The sticking point became the naming rights of the arena that the Hofheinz family contended belonged to them in perpetuity because of the original 1969 donation with the stipulation the area be named for Hofheinz. The Hofheinz family was also not happy they found out about it in a news report, and both sides filed lawsuits to resolve the issue.

A press conference was held this morning announcing a settlement to the naming rights kerfuffle, in which a plaza bearing the name and a bronze statue of Judge Hofheinz in front of the renovated area that will be named starting in the 2018-19 season the Fertitta Center, after Houston entrepreneur and Landry's, Inc owner Tillman Fertitta.

Fertitta donated $20 million to the project. that is scheduled to be completed by the 2018-2019 season and sits on the UH Board of Regents as its chairman.

In addition, UH will petition the city of Houston to name the portion of Holman Street that runs in front of the renovated arena between Cullen Blvd and Scott St for Judge Hofheinz and make his papers available in the school's library and in the UH alumni center adjacent to the renovated arena.

"We know our father would want the athletic department at UH to prosper", said Fred Hofheinz, who served as Houston's mayor from 1974-1978. "So we know he would support this move."

As for UH being announced as the newest member of the Big XII conference, that's still to be determined..

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

One of the issues that continues to plague our LGBTQ community across the country is finding culturally competent health care in our various locales we reside in..

In my old stomping grounds of Louisville, which unfortunately has the LGBTQ hatemongering Southern Baptist Theological Seminary inside the city limits, it's probably a factor in why the University of Louisville's LGBT Center is fielding calls from LGBTQ Louisvillians and residents all over the Kentuckiana area on a daily basis who are searching for doctors and health care providers willing to respectfully treat LGBTQ patients.

To address these issues, the University of Louisville as part of their eQuality Project will host a LGBTQ Health Summit on September 12 at the UofL School of Medicine.

It's sponsored by the U of L School of Medicine Office of Undergraduate Medical Education, Office for Community Engagement and Diversity, and the U of L LGBT Center

"Historically, LGBTQ health has not been part of any health care or medical school curriculum," said Suzanne Kingery MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at UofL. "It is only recently that a handful of medical schools, with UofL at the forefront, have started to do this kind of training. This health summit is a wonderful opportunity for health care providers to learn about LGBTQ care so they can provide affirming care for their patients and follow best practices."

The LGBTQ Health Summit will begin at 8:30 AM EDT on that September 12 date at the School of Medicine , and early registration is encouraged for those of you health care providers wishing to attend..

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About The TransGriot

Monica Roberts, AKA the TransGriot (Gree-oh) is a native Houstonian, GLAAD award nominated blogger, writer, and award winning trans human rights advocate. She's the founding editor of TransGriot, and her writing has appeared at the Bilerico Project, Ebony.com, The Huffington Post and the Advocate.
She works to foster understanding and acceptance of trans people inside and outside communities of color and was recently honored with the Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award

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The TransGriot blog's mission is to become the griot of our community. I will introduce you to and talk about your African descended trans brothers and trans sisters across the Diaspora, reclaim and document our chocolate flavored trans history, speak truth to power, comment on the things that impact our trans community from an Afrocentric perspective and enlighten you about the general things that go on around me and in the communities that I am a member of.

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